From: James Britt <james_b@...>
Date: 2005-11-22T02:48:28+09:00
Subject: Re: [OT] Trying to change my OS from Windows to Linux/Mac

Sam Kong wrote:
> Hello, Ruby people!
> 
> This is not about Ruby itself but about OS.
> The reason that I ask this question in this group is that I've been
> motivated to use other OS's than Windows by this group while I learned
> Ruby.
> Thus the people in this group can answer my question very well.
> Also, I feel very comfortable with people in this group, even if I
> don't know them personally.
> (I feel like they are my friends.)
> This question is not meant to bring flame wars!
> 
> I use Windows at my work and home.
> Of course, I tried several linux OS's (RedHat, SUSE, Debian, Gentoo,
> Ubuntu) and this year I even purchased Mini Mac.
> However, I haven't succeeded to make myself used to these OS's.
> 
> I have some questions to linux users and Mac users.
> 
> 1. When you use Ruby on Linux or just in general on Linux, do you use
> text-mode or graphic-mode?

Both.  Depending on the CPU of the machine, I tend to use  a 
lighter-weight X Windows shell (Window Maker or Sawfish, say, rather 
than than full-blown KDE or Gnome) while calling apps mainly from the 
commandline.  It makes it easier to have multiple stuff running, use 
gvim, run Firefox, and so on, while preserving CPU cycle for databases 
and Web servers.

> 
> 2. I've never succeeded to make my laptops work perfectly on Linux.
> Sometimes, network card is not working, other times, USB is not
> recognized, or Sound card is not working. I've tried on 5 different
> laptops with different Linux but none was perfect. How do you overcome
> this problem? Well... if you use just a text-mode, this might not be a
> problem.

I've managed to get Fedora core 3 (0r 4?  I forget) on a somewhat older 
Toshiba Portege, and the trick for me was to read up on what was 
supported.  So I had to use an older and slower linksys wifi card, but 
other  than that Fedora (and I'm sure others) tend to be pretty good at 
getting installed correctly for the hardware.  (Though generally I do 
not care if sound works; I have my preferred sound tools on Windows.)

James

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